The programme, which has engaged both young and old in targeted weekly music-making sessions at Dorset County Hospital, is set to expand further into Dorset HealthCare sites in Poole and Sherborne in 2025.

Star violinist, Alena Baeva, joins the programme when she visits the UK in late-November, performing in hospital wards and in recital to staff, patients and their families ahead of her BSO concert appearances.

 

A new programme designed to support people at Dorset County Hospital’s Stroke Unit, Children’s Ward, and Elderly Care Ward has reported positive results since its launch four months ago.

The programme has been created to inject music into healthcare systems, breaking the boundaries between life in the hospital ward and the outside world.

Activities have been devised between the BSO’s musicians and healthcare practitioners. Therapists in the Stroke Unit have reported improved recovery through music-making, with physical activities that mimic everyday life, such as the shaking of maracas.

Staff working in the Children’s Ward have seen the impact of music in calming younger patients, helping build connection to the outside world.  Older people and those with advanced dementia have taken part in group music making and singing and enjoyed bedside recitals in wards, helping to ignite memories and conversations, connecting patients, their families, and staff.

The BSO’s musicians have visited Dorset County Hospital weekly, since July, reporting 292 participations in the programme in its initial phase.

The programme extends further across Dorset HealthCare sites in 2025. Music-making at Dorset County Hospital will connect with patients in other wards – plus, the programme expands to reach people in stroke rehabilitation at Sherborne’s Yeatman Hospital and patients living with advanced dementia at Alderney Hospital in Poole.

The Orchestra’s 2024/25 Artist-in-Residence – the violinist Alena Baeva – joins the programme on 26 November, before appearing with the BSO in Poole (27 Nov) and Exeter (28 Nov). Baeva performs in hospital wards before giving a special recital for the Hospital’s staff, patients and families.

Considered one of the most exciting and captivating soloists on the concert stage today, Alena Baeva has performed with the world’s leading conductors and ensembles, the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and London Philharmonic orchestras among them.

 

Matthew Bryant, Chief Executive, Dorset HealthCare and Dorset County Hospital, said: “We are pleased to be working with the BSO on this exciting project.  Music is such an important part of everyday life for so many people, and we want to bring music and other creative arts into the healthcare environment to help healing and rehabilitation, and to make the hospital environment feel more normal.  We can already see the positive impact of this for patients, families and staff – the difference the BSO musicians can make to how people feel is truly inspiring.”

 

Suzy Rushbrook, Arts in Hospital Manager said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra on this programme of musical activity. The aim is for improved health and wellbeing, through listening to and making music – the power of music and lyrics to prompt the memory are incredible. It’s fabulous to be able to expand our Creative Health programme in this way.”


Lucy Warren, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Joint Head of BSO Participate, said: “We are proud to be working in close partnership with Dorset HealthCare, Arts in Hospital, and the incredible staff at Dorset County Hospital on this programme, which has created immediate and positive results within the hospital community. The live music-making in wards has relaxed young people and their families – and we’ve seen how singing has sparked memories and conversations for those living with dementia and offered both physical and emotional boosts to patients in rehabilitation in the Stroke Unit.

“We are thrilled to welcome violinist Alena Baeva to Dorchester – when she visits the UK later this month, to share her world-class music with staff, patients and families – and look forward to deepening our connection with the Hospital’s community through music.”

 

Alena Baeva performs for Dorset County Hospital’s patients, families and staff – on wards and in recital – later this month. Baeva performs with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at Lighthouse, Poole [27 Nov] and Great Hall, University of Exeter [28 Nov]. For full details see bsolive.com

 

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